GIFT   OF 


RHODE       ISLAND       ALPHA       OF       PHI       BETA       KAPPA 


A  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  FROM 

BROWN,  WILLIAM  LEARNED 

MARCY  — AN  ADDRESS 

BY  JOHN  BASSETT  MOORE 


BROTHERHOOD— A   POEM 

BY  HENRY  ROBINSON  PALMER 


ff 


The  following  address  and  poem  zvere  delivered 
before  the  Rhode  Island  Alpha  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
at  Sayles  Memorial  Hall,  Brown  University,  on 
June  15,  1915,  with  Robert  P.  Brown,  A.  M., 
President  of  the  Society,  in  the  chair. 


A   SECRETARY   OF   STATE   FROM 

BROWN,    WILLIAM   LEARNED 

MARCY 

BY  JOHN  BASSETT  MOORE,  LL.  D. 

PROFESSOR   OF   INTERNATIONAL  LAW  AND  DIPLOMACY 
IN   COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY   AND   FORMERLY  ASSIST 
ANT  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


A   SECRETARY   OF   STATE   FROM 
BROWN 

WILLIAM  LEARNED   MARCY 

It  might  seem  to  be  presumptuous  on  my  part 
to  undertake  to  designate  the  three  greatest  alumni 
of  Brown  University ;  but,  whoever  they  may  be,  I 
venture  to  claim  that  the  subject  of  my  address  to 
day  is  entitled  to  a  place  among  them.  In  his  day 
and  generation,  he  stood  among  the  foremost  men 
of  the  country.  He  barely  lost  the  nomination  for 
the  Presidency  of  the  United  States,  and  if  nomi 
nated  would  have  been  elected.  A  few  years  after 
his  death,  his  fame  suffered  the  eclipse  which  befell 
that  of  so  many  able  statesmen  whose  public  career 
ended  just  prior  to  the  Civil  War.  The  great  con 
flict  naturally  cast  into  oblivion  the  men  and  the 
measures  that  immediately  preceded  it  unless  they 
were  distinctly  identified  with  the  controversies 
which  brought  it  about.  Such  was  the  fate  of  more 
than  one  of  the  most  capable  and  most  eminent 
leaders  of  the  old  National  Democratic  Party,  and 
among  these  was  William  L.  Marcy,  the  subject 
of  the  present  address. 

William  Learned  Marcy  was  born  December  12, 
1786,  in  Massachusetts,  in  that  part  of  the  town 
of  Sturbridge  which  is  now  called  Southbridge. 
His  father  was  Jedediah  Marcy,  a  farmer;  his 
mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Ruth  Learned, 
was  a  husbandman's  daughter.  After  studying  for 
a  time  at  Leicester  Academy,  their  son,  William 

333596 


L.,  entered  Brown  University,  where  he  was  grad 
uated  with  high  honors  in  1808. 

Being  obliged  to  rely  upon  his  own  resources, 
young  Marcy  soon  after  his  graduation  at  Brown 
set  out  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  world,  and  to 
this  end  footed  it  across  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
to  what  must  then  have  been  regarded,  in  Stur- 
bridge,  as  the  distant  city  of  Troy,  in  the  State  of 
New  York.  Here,  supporting  himself  by  employ 
ment  in  a  store,  and  perhaps  also  to  some  extent 
by  teaching,  he  entered  upon  the  study  of  the  law, 
and  was  in  due  time  admitted  to  the  practice  of 
that  profession.  From  the  very  first,  he  also  took 
an  active  interest  in  politics,  and  became  a  contrib 
utor  to  the  columns  of  the  Troy  Budget,  an  anti- 
Federalist  organ.  It  was  an  age  of  warm  political 
controversy,  in  which  foreign  questions  loomed 
comparatively  at  least  as  large  as  they  do  today. 
Marcy  early  espoused  the  principles  of  the  Repub 
lican  or,  as  it  was  afterwards  called,  the  Democratic 
party.  It  wras  a  favorite  story  of  an  old  friend  of 
mine,  the  late  Francis  Wharton,  that  the  Supreme 
Judicial  Court  of  Massachusetts  once  formally  de 
cided  that  Jeffersonian  Republicans  were  ferae 
naturae  and  might  be  shot  on  sight.  I  have  never 
sought  to  verify  this  tale  by  an  examination  of  the 
reports  of  that  exalted  tribunal,  but  its  humorous 
exaggeration  perhaps  scarcely  over-emphasizes  the 
antagonism  and  the  horror  formerly  excited  in  cer 
tain  quarters  by  what  appeared  to  be  the  subversive 
and  impious  creed  of  the  Jeffersonian  sect.  Marcy, 
in  a  brief  autobiographical  memorandum,  a  copy  of 
which  I  have  in  my  possession,  narrates  that  he 


was  excluded  from  a  literary  society  formed  by  the 
principal  of  Leicester  Academy  because  of  his  Re 
publican  proclivities.  Upon  this  incident  he  re 
marks  that  it  served  only  to  increase  his  devotion 
to  his  principles. 

In  June  1812,  the  war  with  Great  Britain  broke 
out.  A  military  company  in  which  Marcy  was  a 
lieutenant,  offering  its  services  to  Governor  Tomp- 
kins,  was  sent  to  the  front.  It  was  subsequently 
dispatched  to  French  Mills,  later  known  as  Fort 
Covington.  On  the  night  of  October  22,  1812,  a 
detachment  under  Colonel  Young  was  sent  out  to 
capture  a  company  of  Canadian  militia  at  St. 
Regis.  Marcy  was  of  the  party.  At  the  head  of 
a  file  of  men,  he  approached  the  house  in  which 
the  militia  lodged,  and  himself  broke  open  the 
door.  The  inmates  were  captured  and  disarmed. 
These  were,  with  the  exception  of  some  troops 
captured  by  General  Cass  in  Michigan  but  after 
wards  recaptured,  the  first  British  troops  taken  on 
land  during  the  war.  Their  flag  was  also  captured 
and  was  the  first  standard  taken  on  land.  Marcy 
with  his  company  subsequently  joined  the  main 
army  under  General  Dearborn.  When  his  first  en 
listment  expired,  he  returned  to  Troy;  but  later, 
when  the  city  of  New  York  was  threatened,  he 
volunteered  a  second  time  and  was  for  a  while 
again  in  service. 

In  1816,  Marcy  was  appointed  Recorder  of  Troy. 
He  had  already  formed  an  intimacy,  personal  and 
political,  with  Martin  Van  Buren,  and  like  Van 
Buren  reluctantly  voted  for  DeWitt  Clinton  as  the 
Republican  candidate  for  governor  in  1817.  His 


well-known  dissatisfaction  with  some  of  the  meas 
ures  of  Clinton's  administration  gave  rise  to  threats 
of  his  removal  from  the  office  of  Recorder ;  and  the 
desire  to  subject  him  to  discipline  was  increased  by 
his  criticism  of  Clinton's  administration  in  the  col 
umns  of  the  Albany  Argus,  to  which  he  became  a 
frequent  contributor.  As  a  result,  he  was  in  June 
1818  removed  from  the  Recordership  and  a  Clin- 
tonian  was  appointed  in  his  stead.  This  act,  which 
Marcy  never  ceased  to  resent,  greatly  intensified 
the  repugnance  he  had  always  felt  to  proscription 
for  political  opinions.  For  the  next  three  years, 
being  out  of  office,  he  actively  pursued  the  practice 
of  his  profession ;  but  he  also  continued  to  engage 
in  politics.  He  supported  Van  Buren  in  his  efforts 
to  reorganize  the  Republican  party  in  1819  and 
1820  by  the  exclusion  of  Clintonians,  and  power 
fully  contributed  by  his  pen  to  the  success  of  the 
anti-Clintonian  cause. 

In  January  1821,  a  new  Council  of  Appointment 
composed  entirely  of  Republicans  having  been 
chosen,  Marcy  was  appointed  Adjutant  General  of 
the  State.  In  this  position  there  was  little  oppor 
tunity  for  distinction;  but  in  February  1823  he 
was  chosen  to  fill  the  office  of  State  Comptroller, 
which  had  been  left  vacant  by  the  appointment  of 
its  incumbent,  John  Savage,  as  Chief  Justice  of 
the  new  Supreme  Court  under  the  Constitution 
of  1821.  On  his  election  to  the  comptrollership, 
Marcy  removed  to  Albany,  where  he  afterwards 
continued  to  reside.  The  office  of  Comptroller  was 
then  a  highly  important  one,  owing  to  the  large  ex 
penditures  required  for  the  Erie  and  Champlain 


Canals  and  the  consequent  increase  of  State  debt. 
It  was  universally  conceded  that  Marcy  performed 
the  duties  of  the  office  with  marked  fidelity  and 
skill.  He  introduced  an  improved  system  of  col 
lecting  tolls  and  making  disbursements,  and  first 
exacted  the  payment  of  interest  on  moneys  of  the 
State  deposited  with  banks. 

In  1829  Marcy  was  appointed  a  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  New  York.  He  discharged  the 
duties  of  this  office  with  great  credit  to  himself, 
and  with  entire  satisfaction  both  to  the  bar  and  to 
the  public.  During  his  term  of  service  on  the 
bench,  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  preside  over  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  criminal  trials  ever  held  in  the 
United  States.  This  was  the  trial  of  the  alleged 
slayers  of  William  Morgan,  of  Batavia,  New  York, 
a  case  that  for  several  years  excited  the  liveliest  in 
terest,  and  divided  families,  society,  churches,  and 
political  parties.  Moved  partly  by  differences  with 
some  of  the  members  of  the  Masonic  order,  of 
which  he  was  a  member,  Morgan  conceived  the 
design  of  exposing  its  secrets.  To  this  end  he 
wrote  a  book,  the  publication  of  which  he  com 
mitted  to  a  printer  named  Miller.  When  the  ex 
istence  of  this  design  became  known,  it  produced 
in  Masonic  circles  an  agitation  and  alarm  for  which 
there  was  less  reason  than  excited  minds  were  then 
disposed  to  think.  Attempts  were  made  to  destroy 
Miller's  printing  house;  and  after  the  failure  of 
these  and  of  other  efforts  to  prevent  the  publica 
tion  of  the  volume,  certain  misguided  persons  re 
sorted  to  the  desperate  expedient  of  getting  Mor 
gan  out  of  the  way.  He  was  accordingly  seized 


and  taken  to  Fort  Niagara,  where,  after  a  brief 
detention,  he  was,  as  came  generally  to  be  believed, 
thrown  into  the  Niagara  River.  Trials  of  persons 
concerned  in  the  conspiracy  were  held  at  various 
places;  but,  for  what  may  be  regarded  as  the  prin 
cipal  trial,  that  of  the  actual  slayers,  the  Legislature 
of  New  York,  in  1830,  passed  a  law  for  the  holding 
of  a  special  circuit  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  Niag 
ara  county.  For  this  difficult  task  Marcy  was  se 
lected.  Thurlow  Weed  had  sought  to  make  of 
Morgan's  case  a  political  issue,  because  of  the  iden 
tification  of  leading  Democratic  politicians  with 
the  Masonic  fraternity;  but,  after  the  trial  was 
over,  although  it  resulted  in  a  doubtful  verdict  for 
the  defendants,  it  was  conceded  on  all  sides  that 
Judge  Marcy  had  conducted  his  part  of  the  pro 
ceedings  with  distinguished  ability  and  entire  im 
partiality. 

But,  to  the  upright  judge,  the  recollection  of 
the  case  was  not  without  its  pangs.  History,  if 
truly  narrated,  does  not  always  move  on  the  stilts 
of  dignity;  and  it  is  my  duty  to  record  that  there 
was  a  trivial  incident  of  Marcy's  brief  sojourn  in 
Niagara  county  that  caused  him  greater  mortifica 
tion  than  any  other  event  of  his  life.  The  statute 
under  which  the  special  circuit  was  held  provided 
for  the  payment  of  the  judge's  expenses,  and  while 
sitting  under  it,  Marcy  was  compelled  to  invoke 
the  reparative  skill  of  a  tailor.  As  Comptroller  of 
the  State  he  had  strongly  objected  to  the  lumping 
of  charges,  insisting  upon  the  itemization  of  all 
accounts.  Obeying  as  a  judge  the  rule  he  had  en 
forced  as  Comptroller,  he  included  in  his  account 


for   expenses   at    Niagara   an   item  reading:  "For 
mending   my  pantaloons,    50  cents."     When   he 
ran  for  the  governorship  in  1832,  some  curious  and 
diligent  enemy,  closely  scrutinizing  his  accounts, 
saw  in  this   charge  an  opportunity  to  expose  the 
scrupulous  candidate  to  public  ridicule.     The  re 
sult  was  startling.     Public  questions  were  forgot 
ten,  while  the  people  of  the  State  were  absorbed  in 
the  story  of  "the  patch  on  Marcy's  pantaloons." 
It  is  said  that  the  story  did  not  always  work  to  his 
detriment,   a  rural  elector  having  been  heard  pro 
foundly  to  remark  that  "if  Bill  Marcy  wore  patched 
clothes,"  then  Marcy  was  the  man  for  him.     Nev 
ertheless,  the  victim  of  the  incident  found  himself 
at  a  loss  for  means  to  counteract  its  effect,  till  he 
discovered,  also  among  the  accounts  in  the  Morgan 
case,  a  charge  for  the   "transportation"  of  his  po 
litical  enemy  but  personal  friend,  Thurlow  Weed, 
to  Auburn,  which  happened  to  be  the  seat  of  the 
State  penitentiary.     Taking  this  item  as  his  text, 
Marcy  contributed  an  article  in  his  best  vein  to  the 
Albany  Argus,  in  which  he  declared  that  the  peo 
ple  of  the  State  could  well  have  afforded  to  pay  for 
Weed's    "transportation"   to    Auburn,    if  he  had 
only    been   permanently    detained    there.     To  the 
extent  to  which  this  good-natured  rejoinder  turned 
the  laugh  on  Weed,   Marcy's  situation  was  tem 
porarily  mitigated. 

In  1831  Marcy  was  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate.  He  was  not  an  orator,  but  his  political 
experience,  the  breadth  of  his  information,  and  the 
clearness  and  force  with  which  he  was  able  to  ex 
press  himself,  soon  caused  him  to  be  recognized  as 


8 

a  worthy  compeer  of  any  of  the  members  of  that 
great  body.  He  was  appointed  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  and  a  member  of  the 
Committee  on  Finance.  Unfortunately,  however, 
a  phrase  which  he  used  in  debate  gained  great  no 
toriety,  and  created  in  regard  to  his  political  views 
and  action  an  erroneous  impression  which  he  after 
wards  strove  to  correct  but  never  was  able  wholly 
to  remove.  This  phrase  was  used  in  the  animated 
debate  on  the  rejection  of  Van  Buren's  nomination 
as  Minister  to  England, — an  act  savoring  of  politi 
cal  revenge  and  specially  humiliating,  since  its 
victim  had  reached  his  post  in  London  and  was  ac 
tively  engaged  in  the  discharge  of  his  diplomatic 
duties.  The  justification  chiefly  alleged  for  it  was 
the  charge  that  Van  Buren  was  identified  with  the 
' 'spoils  system,"  to  which  the  "Albany  Regency," 
of  which  he  was  the  head,  was  supposed  to  be  pe 
culiarly  addicted.  Of  that  celebrated  confraternity, 
Marcy,  as  State  Comptroller;  Samuel  L.  Talcott, 
Attorney- General ;  Benjamin  Knower,  State  Treas 
urer,  (whose  daughter  became  Marcy's  second 
wife);  and  Ed\vin  Croswell,  editor  of  the  Argus 
and  State  Printer,  constituted,  says  Thurlow 
Weed,  "with  Van  Buren  as  their  chief,  .  .  .  the 
nucleus;"  and,  speaking  further  of  his  old  political 
antagonists,  Weed  continues :  "After  adding  Silas 
Wright,  Azariah  C.  Flagg,  John  A.  Dix,  James 
Porter,  Thomas  W.  Olcott,  and  Charles  E.  Dud 
ley  to  their  number,  I  do  not  believe  that  a 
stronger  political  combination  ever  existed  at  any 
State  capital,  or  even  at  the  national  capital.  They 
were  men  of  great  ability,  great  industry,  indom- 


9 

itable  courage,  and  strict  personal  integrity.  Their 
influence  and  power  for  nearly  twenty  years  was 
almost  as  potential  in  national  as  in  State  politics. ' ' 
In  defending  his  political  associates,  and  partic 
ularly  his  friend  and  leader,  Van  Buren,  against 
the  assaults  of  the  Whigs,  Marcy,  while  denying 
that  they  were  peculiarly  open  to  reproach,  de 
clared  that  the  politicians  of  New  York  boldly 
preached  what  they  practiced,  and  saw  nothing 
wrong  in  the  rule  that  "to  the  victor  belong  the 
spoils  of  the  enemy."  The  use  of  this  catching 
phrase  Marcy  lived  to  repent ;  nor  did  he  ever  cease 
to  repel  the  interpretation  popularly  placed  upon 
it.  I  have  among  my  papers  a  copy  of  a  carefully 
prepared  memorandum,  in  which  he  declares  his 
dislike  of  the  rule  of  proscription,  of  which  he  was 
himself  an  early  victim,  and  refutes  the  charge 
that  he  was  a  "spoilsman"  in  that  sense.  Al 
though  it  was  his  practice  to  appoint  to  office  only 
persons  of  his  own  political  faith,  he  affirms  that, 
while  he  held  the  post  of  Comptroller  and  had  at 
his  disposal  more  patronage  than  any  other  official 
of  the  State,  he  steadily  refused  to  discharge  men 
from  the  public  service  because  of  their  political 
views;  and  that  even  when  he  became,  as  Secre 
tary  of  War,  the  center  of  partisan  attacks  growing 
out  of  the  conduct  of  the  war  with  Mexico,  he  re 
tained  in  confidential  positions  near  him  men  who 
were  attached  by  political  opinion  and  also  by  fam 
ily  connection  to  his  political  adversaries.  In  the 
Department  of  State  he  disturbed  no  man  on  ac 
count  of  his  political  convictions,  and  carefully  pre 
served  the  organization  of  the  Department  intact. 


10 

In  1833,  Marcy  resigned  his  place  in  the  United 
States  Senate  to  assume  the  office  of  Governor  of 
New  York,  to  which  he  had  just  been  elected.  He 
held  this  office  three  terms,  his  majority  at  each 
biennial  election  successively  expanding,  until,  in 
the  autumn  of  1838,  he  was  defeated  by  William 
H.  Seward.  His  fall  was  the  result  of  financial 
conditions  and  of  the  unpopularity  of  the  monetary 
policy  of  the  national  administration,  at  the  head 
of  which  stood  Martin  Van  Buren.  Under  pres 
sure  from  Washington,  Marcy  reluctantly  advo 
cated  and  signed  the  law  prohibiting  the  circulation 
of  safety-fund  bank  notes  under  the  denomination 
of  five  dollars.  This  measure  proved  to  be  most 
unpopular,  the  suppression  of  small  notes  resulting 
not  in  the  increased  use  of  gold  and  silver,  but  in 
the  flooding  of  the  commonwealth  with  currency 
from  other  States  and  from  Canada  of  variant  and 
uncertain  value.  The  State  administration  being 
thus  placed  at  a  disadvantage  and  exposed  to  pop 
ular  disfavor,  its  decline  seems  to  have  been  some 
what  accelerated  by  the  revival  of  the  story  of  the 
sartorial  patch,  of  which  effective  use  was  made  for 
the  last  time. 

On  June  16,  1840,  Marcy  was  appointed  by  Van 
Buren  as  one  of  the  commissioners  under  the  con 
vention  with  Mexico  of  April  11,  1839,  for  the  ad 
justment  of  claims.  The  duties  of  this  position 
occupied  him  for  two  years,  but  he  was  destined 
for  still  further  honors. 

In  March,  1845,  he  became  Secretary  of  War  in 
the  administration  of  James  K.  Polk.  Like  all  the 
other  members  of  the  cabinet,  he  received  from 


11 

Polk  a  letter  pledging  him,  in  case  he  should  be 
come  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  to  resign  his 
place.  After  the  lapse  of  little  more  than  a  year, 
the  war  with  Mexico  began.  As  has  always  been 
the  case  with  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
it  was  not  prepared  for  the  conflict,  and  the  com 
plex  burden  of  enlisting  and  organizing  a  sufficient 
army  was  thrown  on  Marcy's  hands.  The  ability 
and  skill  with  which  he  performed  this  task  have 
been  universally  attested.  He  was  not,  it  is  true, 
wholly  exempt  from  the  loose  charges  of  misman 
agement,  of  inefficiency,  and  even  of  sinister  ob 
struction  of  our  own  commanding  officers  in  the 
field,  which  were  circulated  against  the  administra 
tion  in  connection  with  the  conduct  of  the  war; 
but,  fortunately,  these  charges  were  at  length  con 
centrated  in  certain  unconsidered  letters  which 
General  Scott  addressed  to  him,  while  he  was  still 
Secretary  of  War.  These  charges  and  complaints, 
Marcy,  by  a  letter  of  April  21,  1848,  triumphantly 
answered.  This  great  state  paper  was  as  famous  in 
its  day  as  was,  in  the  preceding  generation,  John 
Quincy  Adams'  reply  to  Jonathan  Russell  in  the 
celebrated  Duplicate  Letters ;  and  for  some  years 
after  Marcy's  controversy  with  Scott,  the  letter  of 
1848  was  cited  as  an  example  and  a  warning.  It 
is,  however,  gratifying  to  narrate  that  when  these 
sturdy  controversialists  subsequently  met,  Marcy 
extended  his  hand,  which  the  gallant  and  high- 
souled  Scott,  harboring  no  resentments,  cordially 
clasped. 

Between  1849  and  1853,  Marcy  held  no  public 
office.     It  was  the  longest  period  in  his  adult  life 


12 

in  which  he  was  not  saddled  with  some  sort  of  offi 
cial  responsibilities.  He  spent  his  time  pleasantly 
at  Albany  in  social  intercourse  with  his  political 
enemies  as  well  as  with  his  political  friends,  and 
although  he  continued  to  be  active  in  politics,  he 
read  much,  chiefly  in  historical  works.  One  of  his 
chief  diversions  was  whist,  at  which  he  almost 
daily  contended  with  his  old  political  antagonist, 
Thurlow  Weed.  His  reading  was,  however,  ex 
ceptionally  extensive.  When  out  of  office,  he  was 
far  from  being  a  methodical  man,  and  perhaps  the 
nearest  attempt  he  made  at  method  was  in  his 
reading.  He  sometimes  essayed  to  read  regularly 
a  certain  number  of  pages  a  day,  but  he  was  too 
much  interested  in  politics  and  too  fond  of  the  so 
ciety  of  his  friends  to  adhere  rigorously  to  such  a 
plan. 

In  1852,  he  figured  as  a  leading  candidate  for 
the  Democratic  nomination  for  the  Presidency.  As 
has  so  often  happened  with  favorite  sons  of  New 
York,  his  chief  danger  lay  in  a  factious  opposition 
in  his  own  State.  He  had  the  warm  and  cordial 
support  of  such  men  as  John  V.  L.  Pruyn  and 
Erastus  Corning;  but,  unhappily,  Daniel  S.  Dick 
inson,  who  had  a  certain  Southern  support,  partic 
ularly  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  could  not  rid  him 
self  of  the  hope  that  he  might  himself  eventually 
obtain  the  coveted  prize,  if  he  only  could  succeed 
in  blighting  Marcy's  chances.  Before  the  conven 
tion  met  at  Baltimore,  an  effort  was  made  by  some 
of  Marcy's  friends  to  effect  an  arrangement  with 
Dickinson,  under  which  the  candidate  having  the 
strongest  support  outside  of  New  York  should  have 


13 

the  support  of  the  State  delegation.  Dickinson, 
according  to  Thurlow  Weed,  said  in  later  years 
that  if  this  proposition  had  come  to  him  earlier, 
before  his  friends  had  fully  launched  his  candidacy, 
he  would  have  accepted  it.  It  is  probable  that  this 
later  impression  was  not  well  founded.  Certain  it 
is,  as  appears  by  the  journal  of  Mr.  Pruyn,  the 
other  State  delegations  stood  ready  to  nominate 
Marcy  if  only  they  could  be  assured  that  the  New 
York  delegates  had  agreed  to  treat  their  divisions 
as  being  at  an  end.  This  step,  Dickinson,  who 
was  a  delegate,  refused  to  take.  "He  would  not," 
said  Mr.  Pruyn,  "surrender  his  personal  animosi 
ties  toward  Governor  Marcy."  The  sittings  of 
the  convention,  which  began  on  the  1st  of  June, 
were  protracted  till  the  5th  of  the  month,  when, 
on  the  forty-ninth  ballot,  the  convention  with 
practical  unanimity  suddenly  nominated  Franklin 
Pierce  of  New  Hampshire.  Pierce 's  vote  on  the 
forty-eighth  ballot  was  55;  Marcy's  was  90,  the 
highest  of  any  aspirant.  In  the  conditions  then 
existing,  the  nomination  was  equivalent  to  an  elec 
tion,  and  Pierce  was  duly  installed  as  President  on 
March  4,  1853. 

In  Pierce's  cabinet,  Marcy  was  called  to  the 
place  of  Secretary  of  State,  a  post  for  which  his  ex 
perience  in  administrative  positions,  his  wide  read 
ing  and  his  unusually  extensive  information  gave 
him  important  qualifications.  His  career  as  Sec 
retary  of  State  was  a  great  one.  While  strong  in 
controversy,  he  never  pursued  it  for  its  own  sake, 
but  devoted  himself  to  the  accomplishment  of  valu 
able  results.  At  the  very  outset,  he  declined  a 


14 


suggestion  of  his  predecessor  in  office  for  the  con 
tinuance  of  a  debate  with  France  and  Great  Britain 
upon  a  proposed  tripartite  arrangement  in  regard 
to  Cuba. 

One  of  his  earlier  remarkable  achievements  was 
the  conclusion  of  the  Canadian  reciprocity  treaty 
of  June  5,  1854.  The  negotiations,  which  were 
partly  carried  on  at  Berkeley  Springs  in  West  Vir 
ginia,  were  conducted  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain 
by  Lord  Elgin,  who  came  to  the  United  States  as 
a  special  plenipotentiary.  That  the  picturesque 
account  of  his  lordship's  clever  attache,  Laurence 
Oliphant,  of  the  signing  of  the  treaty  should  be  re 
ceived  with  a  grain  of  allowance  is  to  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  he  speaks  of  Marcy  as  a  general 
in  the  Mexican  War  and  represents  him  as  having 
been  a  noted  duelist.  The  effects  of  the  treaty 
were  beneficial  to  both  countries,  and  its  ter 
mination  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  on  notice 
by  the  United  States,  was  due  to  a  combination  of 
causes  in  which  a  feeling  of  resentment  appears  to 
have  played  an  appreciable  part.  So  long  as  the 
treaty  lasted  it  provided  an  amicable  working  ar 
rangement  in  regard  to  the  fisheries,  and  if  it  had 
been  permitted  to  continue  in  force,  the  statesmen 
of  Canada  of  imperialistic  tendencies  would  have 
found  difficulties  even  greater  than  those  they  ac 
tually  overcame  in  bringing  about  the  formation  of 
the  Dominion. 

Another  measure  which  Marcy  sought  to  carry 
through  was  the  annexation  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 
Almost  fifty  years  elapsed  before  this  conception 
of  his  far-reaching  statesmanship  was  fulfilled. 


15 

An  important  subject  with  which  he  dealt  in  an 
intelligent  and  practical  way  was  that  of  the  extra 
dition  of  fugitives  from  justice.  Prior  to  his  time 
the  Department  of  State  had  declined  to  enter 
into  extradition  treaties  with  countries  that  re 
fused  to  deliver  up  their  own  citizens  or  sub 
jects.  In  many  instances  this  refusal  rested  on 
ancient  laws  which  were  regarded  as  having  a 
fundamental  character.  Marcy  took  a  practical 
view  of  the  matter.  As  Governor  of  New  York  he 
had  learned  how  undesirable  it  was  to  make  one 
country  the  refuge  of  criminals  from  another  coun 
try.  He  therefore  decided  to  accept,  wherever  it 
was  necessary,  a  reciprocal  exemption  of  citizens 
or  subjects  from  surrender.  On  this  working  basis 
he  concluded  numerous  treaties,  and  gave  to  the 
development  of  the  system  of  extradition  in  the 
United  States  its  most  decided  early  impulse. 

He  also  initiated  the  movement  which  resulted  in 
the  abolition  of  the  Danish  Sound  dues, — that  is  to 
say,  the  dues  which  had  been  charged  by  Denmark 
on  commerce  passing  into  and  out  of  the  Baltic 
Sea  through  the  Straits  of  Elsinore.  His  action 
led  to  the  calling  of  a  European  conference,  which, 
although  the  United  States  did  not  take  a  direct 
part  in  it,  devised  a  general  arrangement  for  the 
capitalization  and  abolition  of  the  dues.  It  fell  to 
his  successor  in  the  Department  of  State  actually 
to  sign  the  convention  exempting  American  ves 
sels  from  these  burdensome  exactions.  But  the 
draft  was  drawn  and  the  work  substantially  com 
pleted  before  Marcy 's  retirement. 

On  all  occasions  Marcy  took  high  ground  as  an 


16 

advocate  of  the  freedom  of  the  seas  and  of  the  nat 
ural  channels  by  which  they  are  connected.  He 
urged  the  free  navigation  of  international  streams, 
and  the  making  of  treaties  to  obtain  it.  When, 
towards  the  close  of  Pierce's  administration,  the 
United  States  was  invited  to  adhere  to  the  Decla 
ration  of  Paris,  he  proposed,  as  the  condition  of 
adhesion,  the  exemption  of  private  property  at  sea, 
except  contraband  of  war,  from  capture,  and  be 
lieved  that,  if  he  could  have  remained  at  his  task, 
he  might  have  secured  the  general  acceptance  of 
the  principle. 

Three  notable  cases  occurred  during  Marcy's 
term  as  Secretary  of  State  which  I  group  together 
because  they  each  contain  a  predominant  personal 
element.  One  of  these  was  the  dismissal  of  Sir 
John  Crampton  as  British  Minister  at  Washington. 
Some  time  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Crimean  War, 
rumors  became  rife  that  a  system  of  enlistments  in 
violation  of  the  neutrality  laws  was  carried  on  in 
the  United  States  under  the  supervision  of  the 
British  Minister  and  of  certain  British  consuls.  Pre 
cise  proof  of  this  fact  was  eventually  disclosed  in 
the  trial  at  Philadelphia  of  a  man  named  Hertz. 
The  United  States  asked  for  Crampton' s  recall  to 
gether  with  that  of  the  implicated  consuls.  The 
British  ministry  procrastinated  and  objected  until 
it  became  necessary  for  the  United  States  to  act 
for  itself.  This  step  was  taken  by  Marcy  not  with 
out  pain  and  regret,  for  his  personal  relations  with 
Crampton  had  been  of  the  friendliest  character. 
But,  when  brought  to  the  point  of  action,  he 
moved  with  firmness  and  resolution,  sending  to 


17 

the  Minister  his  passports  and  revoking  the  exe 
quaturs  of  the  consuls  at  New  York,  Philadelphia 
and  Cincinnati. 

Another  celebrated  case  was  that  of  Martin 
Koszta.  This  case  is  the  source  of  a  popular  delu 
sion  which  even  high  officials  have  occasionally 
shared.  Koszta  was  a  Hungarian  political  refugee 
who  came  to  the  United  States  about  the  time  of 
Kossuth's  visit.  After  residing  in  the  United  States 
upwards  of  a  year  and  making  a  declaration  of  in 
tention  to  become  a  citizen,  he  paid  a  visit  to  Tur 
key.  While  in  that  country,  certain  agents  of  the 
Austrian  government  conceived  the  idea  of  secur 
ing  possession  of  his  person  under  the  guise  of  the 
system  of  extraterritoriality  which  prevailed  to  a 
limited  extent  in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Proceed 
ing,  however,  in  an  irregular  manner,  they  caused 
Koszta,  while  walking  on  the  quay  in  Smyrna,  to 
be  seized  and  thrown  into  the  water,  where  he  was 
picked  up  by  a  boat's  crew  from  the  Austrian  brig- 
of-war  Huszar,  in  which  he  was  presently  con 
fined.  Immediately  afterwards  Captain  Ingraham, 
of  the  U.  S.  sloop-of-war  St.  Louis,  sailed  into  the 
harbor  and  learning  that  Koszta  claimed  American 
protection,  instituted  an  inquiry;  but  having  sub 
sequently  received  notice  of  a  design  to  remove 
the  prisoner  clandestinely,  before  the  investigation 
could  be  completed,  he  demanded  Koszta' s  release, 
with  an  intimation  that,  unless  the  demand  was 
complied  with  by  a  certain  hour,  it  would  be  en 
forced.  Fortunately,  an  arrangement  was  then  ef 
fected  under  which  Koszta  was  delivered  into  the 
custody  of  the  French  consul-general,  till  the 


18 

question  should  be  adjusted  between  the  two 
governments  directly  concerned.  The  Austrian 
government,  strongly  remonstrating,  lodged  a 
protest  at  Washington,  in  which  it  expressed 
confidence  that  the  United  States  would  dis 
avow  the  conduct  of  its  agents,  call  them  to  a 
severe  account,  and  tender  "a  satisfaction  propor 
tionate  to  the  magnitude  of  the  outrage."  To  this 
protest  Marcy  replied  in  the  celebrated  state  paper 
since  known  as  the  Koszta  note,  presenting  a  mas 
terly  review  of  the  facts  and  the  law,  and  express 
ing  in  conclusion  the  expectation  that  his  Imperial 
Majesty  would  cause  Koszta  to  be  set  at  liberty. 
This  note  has  been  popularly  supposed  to  have  jus 
tified  the  protection  extended  to  Koszta  on  the 
ground  of  his  having  made  a  declaration  of  inten 
tion  to  become  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  No 
supposition  could  be  more  completely  unfounded. 
The  declaration  of  intention  was  referred  to  by 
Marcy  only  as  one  of  the  proofs  that  Koszta  had 
acquired  a  domicil  in  the  United  States.  In  reality, 
Koszta  when  seized  was  a  protege  of  the  American 
consulate,  a  fact  which,  under  the  custom  prevail 
ing  in  Turkey  and  recognized  by  the  Powers,  enti 
tled  him  to  the  protection  of  the  United  States 
without  regard  to  his  original  nationality.  This 
was  the  ground  on  which  his  protection  was  in 
the  first  instance  exclusively  justified.  Subse 
quently,  the  ground  of  domicil  was  introduced  as 
an  independent  source  of  national  character,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  he  had,  as  Marcy  contended, 
been  by  a  decree  of  banishment  deprived  of  his 
rights  as  an  Austrian  subject  and  had  not  yet  ac- 


19 

quired  by  naturalization  the  rights  of  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States.  In  making  this  argument  Marcy 
probably  had  in  mind,  although  he  did  not  mention 
it,  a  peculiar  case  of  similarly  exceptional  circum 
stances,  which  came  before  him  as  a  commissioner 
under  the  treaty  with  Mexico  of  1839.  It  is  grat 
ifying  to  relate  that  the  Austrian  government 
eventually  assented  to  Koszta's  return  to  the 
United  States. 

The  third  case  in  which  an  individual  bore  a 
highly  conspicuous  part  was  that  of  the  Walker- 
Rivas  government  in  Nicaragua,  an  organization 
created  and  dominated  by  William  Walker,  once 
euphemistically  heralded  as  the  * 'grey-eyed  man  of 
destiny. ' '  Walker,  who  was  of  Scotch  antecedents, 
exhibited,  in  singular  union  with  extraordinary  de 
termination,  a  grotesque  perversion  of  the  advent 
urous  spirit  which  has  so  often  characterized  the 
children  of  that  interesting  land.  A  physician  by 
profession,  but  a  filibuster  by  occupation,  he  was 
fanatically  devoted  to  the  design  of  extending  tKB 
domain  of  slavery.  Landing  in  Nicaragua  witrTa 
small  band  of  recruits  from  the  United  States,  he 
effected  a  junction  with  a  disaffected  revolutionist 
named  Rivas,  with  whom  Jie'set  u£>  and  operated  a 
government.  Of  the  manner  in  which  this  govern 
ment  was  conducted,  much  favorable  testimony 
has  been  adduced ;  but  it  aroused  a  feeling  of  uni 
versal  horror  and  alarm  in  Central  America,  and 
was  eventually  overthrown  through  the  patriotic 
sacrifices  of  Costa  Rica,  who  made  war  upon  it  and 
brought  it  to  an  end.  For  a  long  while  the 
Walker- Rivas  government  was  not  recognized  by 


20 

the  United  States,  and  its  recognition  was  strenu 
ously  opposed  by  Marcy  on  the  ground  that  the 
United  States  could  not  afford  to  expose  itself  to 
the  imputation  of  countenancing  hostile  expedi 
tions  organized  in  its  own  territory  against  friendly 
Powers.  Eventually,  however,  the  President  de 
cided  to  recognize  the  government ;  and  I  may  say 
it  was  only  the  insistence  of  the  President  and  his 
appeal  to  personal  considerations  that  induced 
Marcy  to  remain  in  the  cabinet.  On  a  third  fili 
bustering  expedition  to  Central  America  in  1860, 
Walker  was  seized  and  put  to  death.  His  surrender 
in  Nicaragua  on  May  1,  1857,  was,  as  late  as  1890, 
annually  celebrated  in  the  Costa  Rican  capital. 

Marcy 's  state  papers  are  distinguished  by  rare 
ability.  In  comprehensiveness  of  view,  massive 
force  of  statement,  strength  of  legal  argumenta 
tion,  and  clearness  and  vigor  of  style,  they  stand 
unsurpassed  in  the  records  of  the  Department  of 
State.  Apart  from  what  I  had  heard  of  him  in  my 
childhood,  it  was  my  own  fascination  with  them, 
on  my  first  service  in  that  Department,  that  led  me 
to  be  specially  interested  in  his  life.  Of  these  pa 
pers,  the  Kos/ta  note  is  no  doubt  the  one  most 
widely  known,  but  there  are  others  that,  in  my 
judgment,  surpass  it.  If  I  were  asked  to  name 
my  favorite,  I  should  not  hesitate  to  designate  the 
note  to  the  French  Minister,  Count  Sartiges,  on 
the  Greytown  claims. 

Greytown,  a  community  lying  outside  the  then 
generally  acknowledged  boundaries  of  Nicaragua, 
in  what  was  known  as  the  Mosquito  Coast,  claimed 
and  sought  to  maintain  an  independent  existence 


under  the  authority  of  the  Mosquito  king,  who 
was  understood  to  enjoy  the  patronage  of  the  British 
Government.  As  the  result  of  a  controversy  with 
Nicaragua  concerning  limits,  which  involved  the 
question  of  jurisdiction  over  Punta  Arenas,  prop 
erty  belonging  to  the  Accessory  Transit  Company, 
an  organization  of  American  citizens  holding  a 
charter  from  Nicaragua,  was  on  various  occasions 
seized  or  destroyed  at  that  point  by  the  Grey  town 
authorities,  and  for  these  acts  damages  were  de 
manded.  There  was,  however,  another  complaint 
which  was  supposed  to  affect  the  "dignity"  of  the 
United  States.  At  that  time  the  United  States 
was  represented  in  Central  America  by  a  Minister 
named  Solon  Borland,  from  Arkansas,  a  man  of 
spirit  who  had  served  in  the  Mexican  war.  One 
day  the  Greytown  authorities  attempted  to  arrest 
the  captain  of  an  Accessory  Transit  steamer,  then 
lying  at  Punta  Arenas,  when  Mr.  Borland  hap 
pened  to  be  aboard.  The  captain  resisted,  and,  in 
the  scrimmage  that  ensued,  Mr.  Borland  seized  a 
musket  and  gave  to  the  captain  successful  support. 
Great  excitement  ensued  at  Greytown;  and  this 
excitement  was  presently  fanned  to  a  flame  by  the 
announcement  that  Mr.  Borland  intended  to  call 
upon  the  resident  United  States  commercial  agent 
in  the  evening.  A  suggestion  from  the  latter  that 
this  visit  be  considerately  omitted,  Mr.  Borland,  his 
blood  still  up,  scornfully  rejected ;  and,  while  he  was 
in  the  agent's  house,  a  violent  commotion  in  the 
street  denoted  the  presence  of  a  mob.  Mr.  Bor 
land,  nothing  daunted,  promptly  appeared  in  the 
gallery  and  warned  the  tumultuous  assemblage  to 


disperse.  But  his  oratory  was  suddenly  checked 
by  a  blow  in  the  face  from  a  bottle,  thrown  by 
someone  in  the  crowd,  who,  after  draining  from 
the  flask  the  last  inspiring  drop,  used  it  as  a  missile. 
For  the  redress  of  these  accumulated  grievances 
Captain  Hollins,  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Cyane,  was  dis 
patched  to  Greytown.  Lacking  specific  instruc 
tions  as  to  procedure,  he  made  upon  the  local  com 
munity  demands  which  it  was  either  unwilling,  or 
unable,  or  without  adequate  opportunity,  to  meet, 
and  the  time-limit  having  expired,  first  bombarded 
and  then  burned  the  town,  utterly  destroying  it. 
This  somewhat  fierce  and  drastic  punitive  measure 
created  a  sensation  throughout  the  civilized  world. 
I  have  in  my  collections  a  pamphlet  on  the  case, 
published  in  France,  on  the  cover  of  which  the  ac 
tion  of  the  United  States  is  typified  by  an  arm  up 
lifted  in  vengeance  and  bearing  an  incendiary  torch. 
At  the  time  when  Greytown  was  destroyed  nu 
merous  foreigners  were  residing  there,  including 
some  of  British  and  some  of  French  allegiance. 
Claims  in  behalf  of  the  latter  were  unofficially  pre 
sented  to  the  United  States  by  the  French  Govern 
ment  on  the  ground  that  the  destruction  of  the 
place  was  unlawful  and  unjustified.  Marcy,  in  his 
response,  maintained  that,  as  the  claimants  had 
settled  in  Greytown,  they  must  be  regarded  as 
having  committed  themselves  to  its  protection,  so 
that,  for  any  injuries  they  had  suffered,  they  must 
look  for  redress  to  that  community,  and  not  to  the 
United  States  or  to  any  other  country  with  which 
the  local  government  had  happened  to  fall  into 
difficulty.  The  argument  was  marshalled  with 


such  crushing  force  that  Lord  Palmerston  an 
nounced  in  Parliament  that  Great  Britain  would 
not  present  the  claims  of  her  subjects  to  the  United 
States.  The  French  claims  were  abandoned.  I 
have  reason  to  believe  that  Marcy  himself  consid 
ered  his  note  in  this  case  to  be  on  the  whole  the 
most  finished  of  all  his  diplomatic  papers. 

Any  review  of  Marcy 's  eventful  career  as  Secre 
tary  of  State  would  be  palpably  incomplete  that 
failed  to  include  his  well  known  circular  of  June  1, 
1853,  in  relation  to  diplomatic  dress.  While  ex 
pressing,  in  this  circular,  the  expectation  that  a 
diplomatic  representative  of  the  United  States,  on 
the  occasion  of  his  reception,  would,  as  far  as  was 
consistent  with  a  "just  sense  of  his  devotion  to  re 
publican  institutions,"  conform  to  the  "customs  of 
the  country"  wherein  he  resided  and  to  the  rules  pre 
scribed  for  officials  of  his  rank,  Marcy  announced 
that  the  Department  of  State  would  "encourage" 
on  the  part  of  such  representative  '  'as  far  as  prac 
ticable,  without  impairing  his  usefulness  to  his 
country,  his  appearance  at  court  in  the  simple  dress 
of  an  American  citizen."  He  added:  "Should 
there  be  cases  where  this  cannot  be  done,  owing  to 
the  character  of  the  foreign  government,  without 
detriment  to  the  public  interest,  the  nearest  ap 
proach  to  it  compatible  with  the  due  performance 
of  his  duties  is  earnestly  recommended. ' ' 

This  circular,  which  marks,  so  far  as  the  diplo 
matic  service  of  the  United  States  is  concerned, 
the  crest  of  the  great  democratic  movement  that 
culminated  in  the  middle  of  the  past  century,  was 
explained  as  reflecting  "the  simplicity  of  our 


24 

usages  and  the  tone  of  feeling  among  our  people." 
With  such  a  certificate  of  origin,  it  produced,  in 
the  dovecot  of  those  who  aspired  to  further  polit 
ical  honors  at  home,  a  flutter  in  which  the  latitude 
of  action  it  allowed  seemed  to  be  quite  overlooked. 
To  its  keen  and  clear-sighted  author,  whose  sense 
of  humor  seldom  flagged,  this  agitation  must  have 
furnished  a  certain  amusement ;  but  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  circular  expressed  his  own  in 
most  feelings.  With  the  men  of  his  time  and  his 
type,  uniting  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  and  en 
tire  self-respect  an  unaffected,  rugged  simplicity, 
democracy  was  not  merely  a  cult ;  it  was  a  creed, 
a  faith,  in  which  were  bound  up  humanity's  best 
hopes  and  ideals. 

We  have  seen  that  the  object  of  our  present 
devotions  possessed  extraordinary  vigor  of  mind; 
that  he  was  a  statesman  of  grasp  and  of  vision ;  and 
that  he  bore  through  life  an  unblemished  reputa 
tion.  It  is  evident  that  he  was  as  the  world  goes 
an  honest  man.  In  reality,  although  not  deficient 
in  shrewdness,  he  was  remarkably  tenacious  of 
principle  and  sincere ;  incapable  of  playing  the  part 
of  a  poseur,  an  apostle  of  cant.  But,  admitting 
all  this  to  be  so,  did  he  measure  up  to  the  high 
est  standard  of  integrity?  Could  it  be  said  of  him, 
as  was  said  of  another  great  public  servant,  "States 
man,  yet  friend  to  truth"?  Was  he  free  from 
that  form  of  self-deception  which,  often  facilitated 
by  the  emotions,  deludes  the  promptings  of  justice 
and  truth  with  the  exalted  phrases  of  patriotism 
and  benevolence?  Let  him  answer  for  himself. 

During  the  administration  of  Pierce,  the  ques- 


25 

tion  of  Cuba  loomed  large.  Only  a  few  years  be 
fore,  the  United  States  had  offered  to  purchase  the 
island  from  Spain,  but  this  offer  had  been  indig 
nantly  repulsed.  Subsequently,  certain  disputes 
arose,  one  of  which  grew  out  of  the  seizure  of  the 
Black  Warrior,  an  American  vessel,  by  the  au 
thorities  at  Havana.  These  controversies,  com 
bined  with  the  desire  for  more  slave  territory,  ad 
ded  much  strength  to  the  annexationist  movement 
in  the  United  States.  Of  this  measure  one  of  the 
leading  advocates  was  Pierre  Soule,  a  native  of 
Brittany  in  France,  who,  after  settling  in  Louisiana, 
became  a  Senator  from  that  State.  Soule  was  sent 
by  Pierce  as  Minister  to  Spain,  The  inner  histor}^ 
of  his  mission  to  Madrid  has  never  been  written ; 
but,  in  the  midst  of  a  violent  agitation  in  the 
United  States  for  the  annexation  of  Cuba,  the  sin 
gular  step  was  taken  of  instructing  Soule,  together 
with  James  Buchanan,  then  Minister  at  London, 
and  John  Y.  Mason,  Minister  at  Paris,  to  repair  to 
some  place  in  Europe  and,  after  conference,  to 
make  a  report  to  their  Government  on  the  Cuban 
question.  They  met  in  October  1854  at  Ostend, 
in  Belgium,  and  duly  formulated  and  submitted  a 
report. 

In  this  report,  which  is  known  as  the  "Ostend 
Manifesto,"  it  was  declared  that  "if  Spain,  deaf  to 
the  voice  of  her  own  interest,  and  actuated  by 
a  stubborn  pride  and  false  sense  of  honor,  should 
refuse  to  sell  Cuba  to  the  United  States,  "the  time 
would  then  have  come  for  the  United  States  to 
consider  whether  Cuba  in  the  possession  of  Spain 
seriously  endangered  "our  internal  peace  and  the 


26 

existence  of  our  cherished  Union;"  that,  if  this 
question  should  be  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
"then,  by  every  law,  human  and  divine,  we  shall 
be  justified  in  wresting  it  from  Spain,  if  we  pos 
sess  the  power;"  and  that  we  should  be  "recreant 
to  our  duty — be  unworthy  of  our  gallant  forefa 
thers,  and  commit  base  treason  against  our  poster 
ity,  should  we  permit  Cuba  to  be  Africanized  and 
become  a  second  St.  Domingo." 

When  Marcy  received  this  report  his  official 
comments  upon  it  were  as  parsimonious  as  they  were 
effective.  In  a  dispatch  to  Soule,  he  remarked  that 
the  language  of  some  parts  of  the  report  might 
perhaps  be  so  construed  as  to  convey  the  inference 
that  the  United  States  was  "determined  to  have 
the  island,"  and  would  obtain  it  by  other  means, 
if  efforts  to  purchase  it  should  fail;  while  other 
parts  of  the  report  repelled  this  inference.  On  this 
he  would,  he  said,  only  remark  that  while  "the  ac 
quisition  of  Cuba  by  the  United  States  would  be 
preeminently  advantageous  in  itself  and  of  the 
highest  importance  as  a  precautionary  measure  of 
security,"  yet  the  failure  to  obtain  it  by  cession 
"would  not,  without  a  material  change  in  the 
condition  of  the  island,  involve  imminent  peril  to 
the  existence  of  our  Government. ' ' 

Such  were  his  conclusions  as  formally  expressed. 
Not  long  afterward,  however,  in  the  freedom  of 
private  correspondence,  he  gave  full  vent  to  the 
feelings  by  which  those  conclusions  were  inspired. 
In  a  confidential  letter  addressed  to  L.  B.  Shepard, 
a  friend  in  New  York,  he  said : 

"I  have  not  time  to  say  much,   though  I 


have  much  to  say  on  the  subject  to  which  your 
letter  of  yesterday  refers. 

"I  am  entirely  opposed  to  getting  up  a  war 
for  the  purpose  of  seizing  Cuba;  but  if  the 
conduct  of  Spain  should  be  such  as  to  justify 
a  war,  I  should  not  hesitate  to  meet  that  state 
of  things.  The  authorities  of  Cuba  act  un 
wisely,  but  not  so  much  so  as  is  represented. 
They  are  more  alarmed  than  they  need  be  in 
regard  to  the  dangers  from  this  country, 
though  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  filibuster 
spirit  and  movements  do  not  furnish  just 
grounds  of  apprehension.  They  have  a  clear 
right  to  take  measures  for  defense,  but  what 
those  measures  may  be  it  is  not  easy  to  define. 
In  exercising  their  own  rights  they  are  bound 
to  respect  the  rights  of  other  nations.  This 
they  have  not  done  in  all  cases.  That  they 
have  deliberately  intended  to  commit  wrongs 
against  the  United  States  I  do  not  believe; 
but  that  they  have  done  so  I  do  not  deny. 
The  conduct  of  Spain  and  the  Cuban  author 
ities  has  been  exaggerated  and  even  misrep 
resented  in  some  of  our  leading  journals,  par 
ticularly  in  the  'Union.'  L  cannot  speak  of 
the  views  of  the  conductors  of  the  latter  paper, 
for  I  have  little  or  no  intercourse  with  them. 
From  what  I  have  seen  of  it,  I  am  not  much 
surprised  at  the  opinion  that  it  is  for  war,  right 
or  wrong;  but  I  venture  to  assure  you  that 
such  is  not  the  policy  of  the  Administration. 
It  does  not  want  war,  would  avoid  it,  but 
would  not  shrink  from  it,  if  it  becomes 


necessary  in  the  defence  of  our  just  rights. 
"The  robber  doctrine  I  abhor.  If  carried 
out  it  would  degrade  us  in  our  own  estimation 
and  disgrace  us  in  the  eyes  of  the  civilized 
world.  Should  the  Administration  commit 
the  fatal  folly  of  acting  upon  it,  it  could  not 
hope  to  be  sustained  by  the  country,  and 
would  leave  a  tarnished  name  to  all  future 
times. 

"Cuba  would  be  a  very  desirable  possession, 
if  it  came  to  us  in  the  right  way,  but  we  can 
not  afford  to  get  it  by  robbery  or  theft." 
On  the  confession  thus  made  by  her  son,  Brown 
University's  recording  angel  will  have  occasion  to 
shed  no  tears  but  those  of  joy  and  satisfaction. 

On  leaving  the  Department  of  State  in  March 
1857,  Marcy  contemplated  a  voyage  to  Europe  in 
company  with  the  late  Hamilton  Fish,  afterward 
Secretary  of  State,  who  was  then  on  the  point  of 
making  a  two  years'  sojourn  on  the  Continent. 
Marcy  and  Fish  had  always  been  political  antago 
nists,  their  correspondence  having  begun  with 
Marcy's  refusal,  as  Governor,  to  appoint  Fish  a 
commissioner  of  deeds  for  the  City  of  New  York ; 
but  they  became  warm  personal  friends.  At  the 
beginning  of  July,  Marcy,  who  had  been  at  Sar 
atoga  Springs,  started  towards  New  York.  On 
the  Fourth  he  stopped  at  Ballston  Spa.  For  some 
time  he  had  occasionally  felt  in  the  region  of  the 
heart  a  troublesome  disturbance,  which  the  ex 
hausting  effects  of  the  warm  weather  seemed  to 
aggravate.  Feeling  weary,  he  lay  down  on  the 
bed,  in  his  room  at  the  hotel,  with  a  copy  of  Ba- 


29 

eon's  Essays  in  his  hand,  and  as  he  read  he  sud 
denly  entered  upon  his  last  sleep.  A  servant,  on 
entering  the  room  some  hours  later,  found  him  ly 
ing  with  the  volume  still  in  his  hand,  open  at  the 
place  at  which  he  had  been  reading.  Himself  a 
man  of  singular  strength  and  wisdom,  he  spent  his 
last  moments  on  earth  in  communion  with  one 
whose  words  are  the  common  treasure  of  mankind. 
Sharing,  as  an  honorary  alumnus  of  Brown  Uni 
versity,  the  pride  she  must  feel  in  the  distinguished 
son  whose  memory  we  revive  today,  I  wish  to  pre 
sent  to  her,  as  I  now  do,  a  memorial  of  him.  Em 
bracing  photographic  reproductions  of  three  succes 
sive  portraits  representing  him  as  Governor,  as  Sec 
retary  of  War,  and  as  Secretary  of  State,  I  trust  that 
this  memorial,  while  preserving  for  posterity  his 
features,  may  move  some  of  those  who  look  upon 
it  to  study  his  career  and  emulate  his  example. 


BROTHERHOOD— A  POEM 
BY  HENRY  ROBINSON  PALMER,  LITT.   D. 


BROTHERHOOD 

I 

Across  the  sea  the  thunder  runs 
From  Europe's  passion-throated  guns — 
The  guns  of  hate,  the  guns  of  blood, 
That  shame  our  common  brotherhood. 
Yet  brotherhood,  aye  brotherhood, 
Must  make  our  desperate  evils  good, 
And  maddened  Earth  be  brought  at  length 
To  know  the  beauty  and  the  strength 
Of  new-awaking,  war-forsaking, 
Nation-shaking  brotherhood. 

The  politician  draws  his  line 
Along  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine; 
The  boundary -maker  drives  his  stakes 
Beside  the  blue  Masurian  lakes. 
Little  they  know  or  little  care 
They  plant  the  seeds  of  slaughter  there; 
Little  they  reck  of  hate  and  blood 
And  the  stark  shape  of  brotherhood. 
Yet  brotherhood,  aye  brotherhood, 
Shall  one  day  gather  like  a  flood, 
And  man  shall  list  the  sunrise  larks 
Above  his  deluged  boundary  marks. 

II 

The  schools  have  taught  the  stupid  creed 

That  breed  must  scoff  its  neighbor  breed — 

A  creed  that  builds  on  love's  negation 

And  makes  a  fetich  of  the  nation. 

But  in  our  wonder-woven  veins 

We  feel  the  beat  of  hostile  strains: 

England  and  Prussia  side  by  side 

Are  borne  upon  their  stormy  tide; 

France  it  may  be,  and  flax -haired  Sweden; 

A  complex  host  from  many  a  coast, 

Back  to  uncomplex  Eden. 

Who,  who  is  artful  to  invent 

A  measure  for  each  element  ? 

What  skill  can  seek  the  mystery  out 

That  wraps  our  origins  about? 

What  craft  can  unmix  blood  from  blood. 

Label  this  bad  and  call  that  good? 

Alien  with  alien  must  abide, 

Tartar  with  Muscovite  is  tied; 

Though  Rome  is  Rome,  she's  much  beside. 

Upon  our  green  New  England  streets 
The  Present  with  the  Dim  Past  meets— 
The  bearded  patriarch  with  his  eye  of  blue 


Thinks  he  is  English  through  and  through; 
And  yet  his  twin,  like  him  devised  and  planned, 
Sits  'neath  a  palm  in  Samarkand. 

Ill 

But  still  the  unpersuaded  schools 
Rehearse  their  theories  and  their  rules, 
And  far  from  battle's  thunderous  roar 
Proclaim  the  ennobling  art  of  war. 
Remote  from  Flanders'  wooded  crest, 
Where  lie  the  bonniest  and  the  best, 
Where  Youth  has  flung  itself  to  sleep 
Upon  the  unawaking  steep, 
And  Frenzy  out  of  murderous  guns 
Erects  an  altar  for  her  sons. 

Is  war  seen  face  to  face,  a  boon  ? — 
Who  needs  the  answer  here  in  June, 
Unvexed  by  war,  where  the  red  rose  sways 
On  its  untroubled  bough  this  day  of  days, 
And  blue-skied  summer  overwhelms 
The  unscarred  branches  of  the  elms  ? 
And  who  that  sees  the  lads  that  tread 
These  college  walks  would  wish  them  dead- 
Dead  that  a  manlier  land  might  rise, 
And  publish  their  red  sacrifice  ? 
Is  there  no  other  way  than  war 
The  heart  to  teach,  the  soul  to  scar  ? 
Go  watch  the  swaying  riveter  who  risks 
His  life  upon  the  tall  steel  obelisks; 
The  unsung  hero  of  the  street, 
The  brakeman  in  the  blinding  sleet, 
The  mother  in  whose  patient  eyes 
Shines  the  clear  light  of  sacrifice. 
The  miner  flinging  life  away 
Beneath  the  blessed  world  of  day. 
The  grave  physician  gladly  spent, 
The  nurse  with  black  infection  pent. 
The  stoker  at  the  furnace  mouth, 
The  stern  explorer  faring  forth 
To  win  the  guerdon  of  the  North, 
And  the  new  Northman  at  the  Farthest  South. 

We  need  not  fear  lest  life  should  be 
Burdened  by  dull  conformity 
When  war  is  done  and  men  are  one 
And  brotherhood  has  new-begun: 
The  years  will  bud  and  blossom  still, 
Escaped  from  war's  conforming  drill; 
Duty  will  loom  in  place  of  Doom, 
Impetuous  Courage  still  have  room. 
And  blithe  Variety  find  release 


To  climb  the  enchanted  paths  of  peace. 

IV 

Commerce  hath  built  herself  a  realm 
As  sweeping  as  the  sailor's  helm. 
Within  her  all-embracing  state 
No  people  can  live  separate. 
Her  great  republic  leaps  the  barriers 
That  Hate  would  set  about  her  carriers. 
She  smiles  to  see  the  childish  bound 
It  traces  on  her  common  ground. 
Her  myriad  messengers  ignore 
The  fastened  gate,  the  unfriendly  door. 
Within  the  hollow  of  her  hands 
She  holds  the  oceans  and  the  lands. 
Her  august  fleets  and  armies  probe 
The  isolate  precincts  of  the  globe, 
And  though  the  hour  be  not  yet  ripe, 
She  is  the  World  State's  prototype. 


We  love  our  fir  woods  flashing  green, 

Our  sapphire  rivers  swift  between, 

Village  and  city  all  our  own, 

And  the  bright  flag  above  them  blown. 

Its  striped  folds  proclaim  its  cost 

In  matchless  thousands  loved  and  lost; 

And  who  of  us  that  sees  it  flutter 

The  throbbings  of  his  heart  can  utter? 

Its  simple  loveliness  outstrips 

The  homage  of  our  eyes  and  lips; 

It  floats  above  the  maple-leaf, 

The  memory-weighted  hope  of  grief. 

The  sculptor  with  his  plodding  mallet, 

The  painter  with  his  rainbow  palette, 

The  trumpet  and  its  sounding  strain, 

The  tempest  and  the  singing  rain, 

The  joy  of  childhood's  ringing  laughter 

That  makes  a  home  of  hearth  and  rafter, 

The  sweetest  vale,  the  sternest  crag, 

Shall  not  so  stir  us  as  the  Flag! 

The  Flag  !     But  shall  it  ever  be 

The  symbol  of  a  sundering  sea? 

Shall  Hatred  hide  and  Envy  bluster 

Beneath  its  stripes  and  starry  cluster? 

Too  late— For  Earth  hath  cast  her  hosts 

Across  our  hospitable  coasts, 

And  what  the  Pilgrims  called  their  own 

With  East  and  West  is  intersown, 

And  we  are  blood  and  we  are  bone  — 

Forever  knit,  forever  fast — 

Of  the  inextricable  Past. 


VI 

Thus  Time  and  Love  and  High  Design 

Are  leagued  against  the  boundary  line; 

Not  the  fair  mete  that  justice  needs. 

Or  law  requires  or  weakness  pleads, 

Not  the  old  bound  of  sentiment — 

England  shall  still  be  England;  Kent  shall  still  be 

Kent. 

But  from  the  beginnings  faint  and  vague 
That  Peace  hath  fashioned  at  The  Hague, 
And  out  of  the  dream  that  God  hath  dreamed 
Mankind  shall  one  day  be  redeemed. 
And  if  proud  Hamburg  still  must  be 
Jealous  of  London  on  the  sea, 
Or  Glasgow  watch  with  wishful  eyes 
The  mighty  masts  of  Bremen  rise, 
No  more  shall  the  murderous  guns  boom  hate, 
The  sword  in  its  quiet  sheath  shall  wait, 
For  round  the  far,  the  impartial  sea, 
Each  forest-masted  port  shall  be 
A  port  of  the  Union  strong  and  free, 
The  many-pillared  State. 


VII 

Our  children's  children  may  not  see 

This  Ultimate  Democracy, 

But  soon  or  late  the  news  shall  run, 

As  glad  and  shining  as  the  sun, 

That  Earth  hath  drawn  her  chariest  folk 

Under  her  light  and  loving  yoke — 

A  yoke  for  safety  and  a  pledge 

Of  individual  privilege, 

Not  for  the  high  dynastic  few, 

Not  the  old  yoke  of  Rome  anew — 

A  yoke  to  serve  man's  private  good, 

And  save  the  stumbling  multitude, 

A  yoke  to  outdare  our  faint-heart  prayer, 

And  bind  the  world  in  brotherhood. 


PROVIDENCE 

I'Al.MKK  PKKSS 

mi:, 


AN  iHiTiM-  ^&"t?Bs£ 

DAY     "ME  -======== 


OCT41940M. 
OCT  "4  1940M. 


SEP  26 


Syracuse, 
W.J/IM.2I, 


ICT  18  1 


:T  4 


. 


•T?  4 


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